Physiology is a main branch of biology, and it is a subject that studies various life phenomena of biological organisms, especially the functions of various components of organisms and the internal mechanism of their realization.
Development history
Modern physiology characterized by experiments began in17th century. 1628, British doctor Harvey published a famous book about blood circulation, studying the heart blood movement of animals. This is the first time in history that the blood of human beings and higher animals is exported from the left ventricle, flows to the whole body through systemic arteries, then gathers in veins and returns to the right atrium, and then enters the left atrium through pulmonary circulation. In this way, the heart becomes the center of blood circulation.
However, due to the limitation of tools at that time, Harvey could only rely on the speculation that arterial blood passed through the pores of tissues and led to veins. It was not until 166 1 year that the Italian histologist Marcello Malpighi discovered the capillaries with a simple microscope, so that all the paths of blood circulation were clarified and the basic laws of circulatory physiology were established.
17th century
/kloc-in the 7th century, the French philosopher Descartes applied the concept of reflection to physiology for the first time, and thought that every activity of animals was a necessary response to external stimuli, and there was a fixed neural connection between stimuli and responses. He called this series of activities reflection. The concept of reflection didn't gain the basis of structure and function until the sensation of dorsal root system and the movement of ventral root system were discovered in the early19th century. This concept paved the way for later research on the law of nervous system activity.
18th century
/kloc-in the 8th century, French chemist lavoisier first discovered the principles of oxygen and combustion, and pointed out that the breathing process, like combustion, consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide, thus laying a foundation for the study of human metabolism. Italian physicist galvani discovered that animals can generate electricity when their muscles contract, so he started a new physiological research field of bioelectricity.
19th century
19th century, physiology began to enter its heyday. First of all, I would like to mention Bernard, a famous French physiologist, who has made extensive experimental research in many aspects of physiology and made outstanding contributions. More importantly, his concept of internal environment has become a guiding theory in physiology. He pointed out that plasma and other extracellular fluids are the internal environment of the animal body, and the whole body cells live directly. Constant physical and chemical factors in the internal environment, such as temperature, pH and osmotic pressure, are necessary conditions for maintaining life activities.
The tattoo recorder created by Ludwig in Germany has long been a necessary instrument in the physiological laboratory. He has made important contributions to the neuroregulation of blood circulation, and put forward valuable views for the urophysiology of the kidney. Heidenhain, who was contemporary with him, not only put forward different views on renal urophysiology, but also studied the mechanism of gastric juice secretion by the method of chronic gastric preparation for the first time, which was called Hayward's stomach. The preparation method of this small stomach was later improved by Pavlov, a famous Russian physiologist, into a papillary small stomach, which proved that the regulation of gastric juice secretion has both humoral and neural mechanisms, and they have made immortal contributions to digestive physiology.
Helmholtz, a German physicist and physiologist, not only made outstanding contributions to visual and auditory physiology by using his rich physical knowledge, but also created a simple and quite accurate method for measuring nerve conduction velocity, which was praised by later generations.
The first half of the 20th century
In the first half of the 20th century, physiological research has made rich achievements in various fields. 1903, Sherrington published his masterpiece "The Integration of Nervous System", which made a long-term and accurate study on the law of spinal cord reflex and laid a solid foundation for the physiology of nervous system. At the same time, Pavlov turned from the study of digestive juice secretion mechanism to the detailed study of cerebral cortex physiological activities with saliva secretion as an objective indicator, and put forward the famous concept of conditioned reflex and higher nervous activity's theory.
On the basis of long-term research on the physiology of autonomic nervous system, Cannon put forward the famous concept of steady state in 1929, which further developed Bernard's theory of internal environment invariance. He believes that the physical and chemical factors of the internal environment can fluctuate in a narrow range and remain relatively stable all the time, mainly relying on the regular regulation of the autonomic nervous system and some related endocrine hormones.
In the 1940s.
In the 1940s, Cannon's concept of steady state, due to the combination of cybernetics, widely recognized that all parts of the human body, from cells to organ systems, are kept in a relatively stable state by their own regulatory mechanisms, and these mechanisms have negative feedback. Since then, with the introduction of a series of new concepts and technologies such as cybernetics, system analysis and computer, physiology has taken a big step in quantitative research, and a new frontier discipline-mathematical physiology and system physiology has emerged.
20 years of the 20th century
The study of modern physiology in China began in the 1920s. 1926, at the initiative of physiologist Lin Kesheng, chinese association for physiological sciences was founded, and the China Journal of Physiology was published the following year. After the founding of New China, it was renamed acta physiologica sinica. China physiologists published many valuable research papers in this journal, which attracted the attention of international colleagues.